


True Colors

by sartiebodyshots



Category: Falling Skies
Genre: M/M, Sneaky Aliens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-17
Updated: 2015-05-17
Packaged: 2018-03-30 22:52:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3954889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sartiebodyshots/pseuds/sartiebodyshots
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shaq stumbles into Hal with a startling series of confessions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	True Colors

**Author's Note:**

> Vaguely references events from my fic Strawberries & Sleep, but you don't have to read it to get it. Just know that strawberries get Volm drunk.

            “Hal Mason!” Shaq practically yells at him.

            “Shaq?” Hal asks, more than a little confused.  His lover doesn’t do a lot of yelling outside of battle.

            Shaq drapes himself over Hal, which makes his knees buckle.  The Volm is heavy.  “Greetings,” Shaq says. 

            It takes Hal a minute to reply because Shaq is _nuzzling_ his head.  Nuzzling.  Shaq.  His head.  It doesn’t compute.  Something has happened.

            “Are you okay?” Hal asks.

            “It is good to see you,” Shaq says.

            “You’re admitting you’re happy to see me?” Hal asks.

            “I do not often admit it, but it is how I feel,” Shaq says.  “It is an error, a failing on my part, but I cannot help it.”

            Hal eases Shaq to the ground and squats in front of him.  He holds Shaq’s face in his hands, examining him.

            “Are you drunk?”

            “Volm are not susceptible to poisoning,” Shaq says, “but we _are_ susceptible to humans.”

            “Have you eaten anything weird lately?”

            “I was hungry so I consumed some native flora that I found.  It was red and enjoyable.”

            “Strawberries,” Hal says, remembering a similar event with Cochise a few months ago.  “You had strawberries.  They make you drunk.”

            “I do not know, but I feel overcome with something strange,” Shaq says, pulling Hal suddenly close.  “I wish many things were different, Hal.  It is a useless feeling.”

            Hal turns to look at him, raising an eyebrow.  “What do you wish were different?” 

            “That we could be together,” Shaq says.

            “But we are together,” Hal says.  “Pretty much every day.  And night.”  Usually long into the night.

            “I will need to take a Volm mate one day,” Shaq says mournfully, “and they will not be you, and the thought makes me unhappy.”

            “So don’t,” Hal says, shrugging.  “Don’t take another mate.  Just take me.”  Over and over and over again.

            “It is my duty,” Shaq says.  “I will wait until we have parted, but I will do my duty in the end.”

            “Stay here,” Hal leaps on this opening.  He doesn’t want Shaq to go either.  “Cochise is going to, after the war is over.  You can, too.”

            “I cannot,” Shaq says.

            “Why?” Hal asks.

            Shaq doesn’t answer, just touches his face slowly and carefully.  Hal doesn’t interrupt as Shaq traces his bone structure delicately.  It’s bizarrely intimate; he’s not used to this kind of tenderness from Shaq.

            “I am not Chichauk.  I cannot leave my people, not even for you,” Shaq says.  He’s still tracing Hal’s face.  “And I am sorry for that, even though I will pretend that I do not care.”

            “Why?” Hal asks again.  He’s soft and quiet, not wanting to spook Shaq. 

            “The Volm do not form attachments to the aliens we encounter,” Shaq says.  “And I cannot be different.”

            “You already are,” Hal says.

            “I do not want to be,” Shaq says, cupping his cheek.  “I do not want to be different as Chichauk is.  I have always been a model Volm soldier, and this is an aberration that I pretend is not happening.  An aberration that I pretend is only physical.  Chichauk has always been different.”

            “There’s nothing wrong with being different,” Hal says.  “Humans embrace their differences.”

            “Hal, you are being dense again.  I am not human,” Shaq says.  “I am Volm.  We do not accept our differences.”

            “Cochise does.  You could,” Hal says. 

            “I cannot,” Shaq says.  “That is not who I am.” 

            “I know,” Hal says, turning his head to kiss Shaq’s palm.

            “You should be with someone who can be with you permanently,” Shaq says.  “Who is not planning to leave the planet.”

            “Yeah, probably, but I want to be with you,” Hal says.  “Life’s too short.”

            “I wish for your life to be long,” Shaq says.  “Long, prosperous, and happy.”

            “You’re making me happy these days.  That’s what’s important,” Hal says.  Although, he is going to miss this talkative Shaq when he sobers up.

            “I am going to go to sleep.  Would you join me?” Shaq says.

            “You want me to come with you?” Hal says.  Shaq always sleeps privately.

            “Yes,” Shaq says.  “I would like for you to come with me.”

            “Okay,” Hal says, letting Shaq lead him to the Volm compound. 

            Shaq lays down in his bed and Hal joins him, wrapping instinctively around his Volm.  He rests his head on Shaq’s shoulder. 

            “I really care about you, Shaq,” Hal says. 

            “I care about you as well,” Shaq says as he wraps an arm around Hal, holding him close.  He leans up and kisses Hal firmly.  Shaq’s hand rests gently on the nape of his neck.  The kiss is soft and thorough, but with no expectation that kissing is going to lead to sex as it always does with them.  It’s _sweet_.

            Hal lays awake that night, enjoying the feeling of just being held by Shaq even if he is unconscious.  It’s something that he knows won’t happen again unless Shaq eats more strawberries.  A lot more, Hal guesses.  

* * *

 

            Shak-Chic pretends to be asleep for a while, holding his human closely.  Since hearing of Chichauk’s adventure with strawberries, he has been planning this.  This is the only way that Shak-Chic could communicate his feelings to Hal.  They are feelings that Shak-Chic himself has only begun to accept as a reality.

            He could not be honest with Hal, but he wished for Hal to know of his feelings anyway.  From what he has observed of human behavior, when one is drunk, one is not entirely responsible for one’s actions.  It is a social convention that Shak-Chic believed he could take advantage of.  And thus, this plan was born.

            “Good morning, Shaq,” Hal says.

            “Why are we in my bed?” Shaq asks.

            “You brought me here,” Hal says.  “You wanted to cuddle.”

            “I refuse to believe such a thing,” Shaq says, feigning what he has heard humans call a ‘black out’.  “This was your idea.”

            Hal snorts and shakes his head.  “You’re a pain in the ass, you know that?”

            “And yet you remain,” Shaq points out.  “A pain in the ass” is one human expression he understands, as Hal has used it to describe him many times. 

            “Yeah, I do,” Hal says, smiling down at him in the manner that fills Shaq up in that indeterminable way.

            _I am glad_ Shaq refuses to say, now that Hal thinks he is unaffected by strawberries.

 


End file.
